Your Right to Know

Though they say a sales-tax increase is just one option to bring in more money, Franklin County
commissioners have detailed plans for putting one in place.

A memo delivered to the commissioners this month by County Administrator Don Brown lays out each
step the county must take to institute a tax increase, a proposed timeline for when such an
increase could take effect and what steps opponents of a tax hike could take to thwart such
efforts.

The memo, obtained through a public-records request, shows that the commissioners were briefed
as early as Jan. 3 on what it would take to put a sales-tax increase in place by next year. That’s
almost two weeks before
TheDispatch asked officials whether they were considering a sales-tax increase for a story
earlier this week.

In the memo, Brown counsels the commissioners to form a citizens’ advisory committee of
financial experts to study the county’s budget and determine whether an imbalance exists between
revenue and expenditures. If so, he said, the committee should provide long-term solutions to close
the county’s “fiscal gap” and maintain its economic growth.

The commissioners agreed. They announced last week that they hoped to have such a committee in
place by the end of the month.

But Brown’s memo goes on to state that “prime consideration should be given by the committee to
the permissive sales- and use-tax options available to Ohio counties.” It then goes on to describe
those options in detail.

There is so much detail, in fact, that “for discussion purposes,” it includes a proposed
timeline that pegs the starting date for the higher tax as Jan. 1, 2014. It also lists the dates on
which the commissioners would have to hold public meetings and pass a resolution adopting the
increase to legally meet the state’s notification requirements.

The packet of information that was presented to the commissioners along with the memo also
includes a draft resolution for the adoption of a 0.25 percent sales-tax increase, and the packet
includes a future-dated letter to
TheDispatch’s legal-advertising department informing it of the dates the county will run its
required public notices.

Lastly, the packet contains “talking points” used by past county commissioners in discussions
with
TheDispatch’s editorial board in 2005, the last time commissioners increased the county’s
sales-tax rate.

If that all seems like county officials have long since made up their minds to pursue a tax
increase, the county commissioners say it’s actually proof of only one thing: the professionalism
of their county administrator.

“Don is a very thorough individual,” Commissioner John O’Grady said. “He wanted to make sure we
understood all the possibilities and procedures. Whether it even is something we may or may not
decide to do, we want to know all the options.”

O’Grady said he absolutely stood by his earlier comments that the commissioners are months away
from deciding what, if anything, to do about possible shortfalls in next year’s budget.

Commissioner Marilyn Brown said the county administrator was so detailed because he wanted the
commissioners to know that if the advisory committee did consider a sales-tax increase, the
notification deadlines would determine when the committee had to wrap up its work. He didn’t
present any other options, she said, because they don’t require the same level of detail.

If the committee recommended internal cost-saving measures such as combining departments, for
example, those are things the commissioners could do with the stroke of a pen, she said. A
sales-tax increase requires many more steps, which is why Don Brown’s memo was so thorough.

“I don’t think you can make a jump from his being diligent to, ‘Oh, they’re considering a sales
tax, and it’s the only thing they’re considering,’ ” she said.

Of the three commissioners, only Paula Brooks will say that the county does not have many
options beyond a sales-tax increase when looking for more revenue. That doesn’t mean a decision has
been made, however, and doesn’t mean she’s not looking forward to the committee’s findings, she
said.

“I like to see the homework done,” she said. “(The committee) might come up with a new, great
idea or a package of ideas.”

Brooks said she hopes the committee’s work also will help expose the number and cost of unfunded
state mandates on county government and all the county does for its residents.